I have come to drag you out of yourself, and take you in my heart. I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had and lift you like a prayer to the sky ~Rumi

“Step Away from the Mean Girls…
…and say bye-bye to feeling bad about your looks.
Are you ready to stop colluding with a culture that makes so many of us feel physically inadequate? Say goodbye to your inner critic, and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.

This is a call to arms. A call to be gentle, to be forgiving, to be generous with yourself. The next time you look into the mirror, try to let go of the story line that says you’re too fat or too sallow, too ashy or too old, your eyes are too small or your nose too big; just look into the mirror and see your face. When the criticism drops away, what you will see then is just you, without judgment, and that is the first step toward transforming your experience of the world.” – Oprah Winfrey

“A cultural fixation on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty but an obsession about female obedience.” – Naomi Wolf

“To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.” – Simone de Beauvoir

Life moves at the speed of light toward eternity. Each breath takes us one step closer to our final breath.

No matter where we are on the scale of 1 to 100 in this immensity called life…20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s or 90’s…at times we will find ourselves struggling with aging.

Our bodies change, hair turns gray and we have to learn to embrace our wrinkles. That doesn’t mean we’re ready for the nursing home. It means we have a lot more living to do. We stop looking at the calendar and start celebrating everything we do in life.

Others may think we’re not as pretty as we once were but we know we’re more beautiful than ever.

“Seek ye counsel of the aged for their eyes have looked on the faces of the years and their ears have hardened to the voices of Life. Even if their counsel is displeasing to you, pay heed to them.” – Kahlil Gibran

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” –Sophia Loren

This woman has wisdom in her eyes and a beautiful smile. I would be honored to know her.

When I started this blog series two weeks ago I felt rebellious toward the “perfect woman” image that permeates the media and the fashion industry. It’s an absurd image that few woman can achieve, yet so many aspire to it.

If we’re curvy we’re too fat to measure up to society’s standardized version of beauty…extreme thinness. Consequently we often end up hating our bodies.

Excessive exercising, extreme dieting and overuse of diet pills and laxatives to lose weight are warning signs that a person could be anorexic.

How thin is thin enough?

Fashion model Ana Carolina Reston died from complications of anorexia in 2005 at the age of 21.

She weighed 88 pounds when she died.

You can see this young woman’s anorexia progress over time until her death. To me this is not beauty. It’s extreme malnutrition and starvation. The fact that she was still getting runway modeling jobs shortly before her death is tragic. It says a lot about the type of body the fashion industry holds in esteem.

Do you ever ask yourself…

Q. If I’m thinner will I be beautiful?

A. You don’t need to be thinner. You’re already beautiful.

Q. If I’m thinner will I be sexier?

A. You don’t need to be thinner to be sexy. Curves are sexy.

Q. If I’m thinner will I be happy?

A. You don’t need to be thinner to be happy. You’ll be happier when you learn to love yourself.

Since the moment my first daughter was born 35 years ago motherhood has been my top priority in life. I fell in love with my baby girl and knew I would fight for her no matter what it took. My second daughter was born two years later and I loved my second baby girl as much as my first.

Parenting was challenging at times. They don’t stay babies forever and before you know it they’re out of your sight and starting to live their own life.

Eventually they become teenagers and the challenge of raising daughters peaks. I used every trick imaginable to get them both through high school and to keep them safe.

Then they left home and went to college. I cried my heart out and thought they would never come back. I guess it’s call the empty nest stage. Oh, but they did come back and they were grown women by then, college educated and ready to take the world on.

Somehow we all survived those years of joy and angst, pushing and pulling each other through the best and worst situations. We faced life together and shared our special love for each other when it was needed the most. We still do.

I wasn’t perfect but they both tell me I was a good mother. Who would know better than them? I did my job and now it’s their turn. Motherhood is contagious.

“What is so real as the cry of a child? A rabbit’s cry may be wilder But it has no soul.” – Sylvia Plath, Ariel

Today’s post is honoring the women who have been targets of domestic violence, stalking or any type of sexual, physical, emotional, economic or psychological abuse.

Whether a woman has witnessed it in the street, had a friend or relative in an abusive relationship or was in one herself, I believe we’ve probably all witnessed violence against women at some level.

Women are victimized by intimate partners, social acquaintances and friends, family members and even strangers. It’s not unusual for violence or abuse to cause long term trauma related health effects. Healing is their mission.

How many of us are really happy with our naked selves? When I look in the mirror I can drive myself insane with all the negativity that goes through my mind. I can obsess about my appearance and all the real and imagined flaws from head to toe. I’m not a bikini model and never have been.

I’m also not a barbie wanna-be. I know I will never achieve perfection. No anti-aging products, diet pills, teeth whiteners or makeup will ever change the way I feel about myself. I fix what I can, enhance what I want and embrace the rest because what’s on the inside counts more than what I see in the mirror.